On the Road Again
While Jass and Grok decided that they wanted to do some extra checking into Cragmaw Castle everyone else decided to take care of the various taskes that the people of Phandalin had asked them to look into. Before heading out there was some shopping to do. Donnie found a man in town named Xander Zibit (you can call him X for short) and purchased a wagon and goods to “Pimp it out.” It was going to take him a few days to work on everything to get it ready. Aellora was faced with a choice between 3 different mules that seemed have a direct correlation between obedience and ugliness. She chose the middleground of an average looking mule who was young and inexperienced, but could be trained into a good work Mule. Bubbles also heard that there was a kindly Halfling in town names Qelline Alderleaf, who might have riding supplies that would fit is Mastiff. Qelline got a little emotional remembering poor Fido’s passing, but ultimately felt like Fido would have wanted to see his Saddle go to good use so she gave Bubbles a discount on the saddle. Qelline also let the party know that the family that had been freed from Tresendar Manor were still staying in her barn because they did not feel safe in the home they were abducted from. Miran revealed that she had mistaken Naked Dave as a friend of the party and told him the exact location of the emerald necklace that was abandoned in Thundertree. This caused Bubbles to want to rush to Thundertree before Naked Dave could beat them there, but the tales of a dragon taking up residence and the fact that Jass and Grok were going to go off on their own to learn more about Cragmaw Castle made everyone else a bit wary of rushing into fight a dragon without the full party around. Miran told the party where the emerald necklace could be found and thanked them for their help. Qelline also chimed in when she heard the party talking about going to Thundertree that if they were were to look into Thundertree an old druid named Reidoth might be able to give them more information about what is happening there, because he tends to keep an eye the area and strange natural phenomena. After some consideration the party decided that it would be a good idea to first look into the Banshee that Sister Garaele wanted them to ask about a missing spellbook. Leaving late in the afternoon they could not quite make it all the way to the Triboar Trail before they needed to set up camp. As the evening went on everyone shared some stories of their pasts and getting to know one another a bit better. A schedule of who would be on watch was determined and Aellora said that she wanted to be on watch with Bubbles because she wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t be distracted by something shiny. A little while into the first watch, Kuro and Donnie heard a howl as saw a small pack of 3 wolves charging at them. The hungry wolves were attracted by the smell of the the parties dinner. Kuro and Donnie spotted the wolves as they made their charge and took one out right away. After the second wolf was killed the last one fled and the party had a quire rest of the night. Everyone set out on the road the next day. While traveling down the Triboar trail they suddenly heard a strange noise of some odd flapping and hissing as a flock of seven Stirges attacked. Kuro took the brunt of their attack having a couple of them latch onto him, but do very little damage. The rest of that day went smoothly and everyone made camp just outside of the woods near Agatha’s Lair. That night things were pretty quiet. But While on watch with Bubbles Aellora spotted something shiny near the woods. She told Bubbles about it before moving in closer to inspect it and found that it was only an illusion that Bubbles created to prove to her that she would wander off to look at something shiney while she was supposed to be on watch. The next day everyone made their way into the woods and found Agatha’s Lair. Kuro and Donnie decided that they would make their way into the Lair to offer her the Silver comb and to try and avoid conflict. Everyone else hid in the woods around the lair trying their best to stay hidden and keep an eye on what happened. Agatha appeared and warned them that to threaten her meant death. Donnie presented the comb to Agatha. Agatha was pleased to have such a beautiful item to add to her collection, and in return she allowed Donnie to ask her one question. Donnie asked Agatha about the location of Boowgentle’s Spellbook, and Agatha told her that she had given to book to a powerful necromancer named Tsernoth over a century ago. Agatha then faded away and Donie and Kuro calmly left the lair and met back up with everyone else. After leaving Agatha’s Lair everyone decided to check out the abandoned town of Conberry. The town was totally empty of people and everyone started looking around for anything useful. Aellora found a Deck of Illusions in an old guest room in the Inn, and in an old Miner’s Exchange Donnie found some gems and Bubbles found some packets of Dust that Aellora used Identify to find out that they were Dust of Disappearance. Other than that the town was pretty thoroughly ransacked and nothing else of interest was found. The rest of the day was spent on the way towards The Old Owl Well. They were able to make it just inside the hills near the Old Owl Well when they needed to make camp. While they were making came a couple of roaming Ghouls attacked. the Ghouls put up a good fight, but none the less fell to the strength of the party. That night everyone spent some time setting up some ropes with various plates and silverware attached to them at act as crewd alarm system to help warn them of danger. The night passed without incident and in the morning everyone packed up their gear and made their way to the Old Owl Well. Upon approaching they found an old ruined watchtower with a tent near it. Donnie approached the tower and could hear the sound of groans coming from inside. She cast Turn Undead and suddenly the groans became panicked except for one that became aggravated and one Zombie came out of the tower. Bubbles worked his way into the tower and hit the lot of them with a Thunderwave and combat went on for a short time until a man covered in strange tattoos wearing a red robe emerged from the tent demanding to know what was happening. The Zombies all calmed down and stopped attacking, and began to wander aimlessly again. The man told everyone that his name was Hamun Kost, and that he was monitoring and studying the Old Owl Well for a purpose that he would not divulge. He threatened the party that if they did not do a favor for him, that he and his zombies would kill them. Hamun had two tasks they could try to complete. The first one was to ask Agatha who built the watchtower at the Old Owl Well. The other task as to remove the Orcs from Wyvern Tor before they had the chance to disrupt his work. Hamun told them that he would let them live if they promised to take care of one errand for him, and that if they could complete both of his errands that he would consider letting them know what his business was at the Old Owl Well. After a bit of debate the party agreed to take care of the Orcs, and consider returning to Agatha. Everyone then traveled to Wyvern Tor and upon their approach they noticed one Orc standing guard outside of their cave. Aellora managed to climb up the mountain side to get into position over the cave, and while everyone else was trying to hide the guard heard some noise as everyone moved around. He call something into the cave in Orcish and began to head out to investigate the sound. Aellora then threw out a rondom card from her Deck of illusions which conjured up an Illusion of herself. Upon seeing this person appear the guard yelled out again and several more orcs began to emerge from the cave. The first of the Orcs to came out was their chief who immediately took a swing at the illusion and swinging straight through it, and calling out to his fellow orcs. Soon after the rest of the Orcs attacked an Ogre also came out of the cave and joined in the fight. As the fight raged on Zinda was almost knocked out of a tree, but turned into a Giant Toad and bit an orc in half. A few of the Orcs fell, but upon the chief getting killed the remaining orcs began to flee. Kuro shattered the pelvis of one of the orcs who was running away and everyone managed to take down the Ogre who was fought to the bitter end. Everyone collected up what they could find of value along with the head of the orc chief and everyone decided to head back to Phandalin. Prev: Are You My Mummy? Next: Scouting and Scrapping